Shuffling students around isn’t the best solution for overcrowded classrooms at Lake Wilderness or Glacier Park elementary schools, but short of building a new school, it’s the best Tahoma School District officials said they can do right now.

District staff presented five proposed boundary changes for elementary students at a pair of public meetings in the past week.

At a meeting Monday night about 50 were in attendance, including staff, parents and members of the 10 person committee that has reviewed data and developed the proposals.

Bruce Zahradnik, assistant superintendent for human resources for Tahoma, said that he understands the boundary changes “can certainly create anxiety for children and families.”

“Our goal is to clarify the plans,” he told the audience. “And hear from you … which plan makes the most sense to you.”

Written comments provided by those who attended the meeting, Zahradnik explained, as well as input sent to staff and the committee was the best way for parents to get their voices heard during the process.

“There’s difficult decisions and a difficult job to be done,” he said. “If you’ve been in the school district for a while, you’re probably quite aware of the problem. We have a tendency to have overcrowding in some of our schools.”

Particularly acute overcrowding has occurred in the southern part of the district with 900 students at Glacier Park while Lake Wilderness has 980 students. Meanwhile, Shadow Lake has 530 students and Rock Creek is at 820.

“To have equitable class sizes it has been necessary on occasion to do a boundary adjustment,” Zahradnik said. “In earlier years there were larger numbers of children being moved.”

In fact, the proposed boundary change that will go into effect this fall will be the fourth in the past seven years, with adjustments done in 2003, 2005 and again in 2007.

“The goal (each time) has been to preserve the longevity of the plan,” Zahradnik said. “But, we do not have a school with enough open space.”

For now, adjusting the boundaries would serve as a short term solution until the district can build a fifth elementary school, something that will require the district to go to the voters and ask for a construction bond to be approved.

“The rubber meets the road on being able to house all of our elementary students until fall 2015 without having to add space or increase classroom size,” Zahradnik said. “Looking ahead, it may not be viable to do a boundary change to solve our problem.”

Building another elementary school, however, is a separate issue the Tahoma Board of Directors will have to take up later this year. That is currently in the planning phase as the board prepares to decide on how to proceed.

In the meantime, the boundary adjustment is a quick fix that will move about 150 to 175 students around.

The committee will need to come up with a consensus on a recommended plan or possibly two of the five that are under consideration by the time the school board meets again on April 27.

Final adoption by the school board will come at its May 11 meeting.

One issue raised by parents in attendance is that students living in the Lake Retreat area in Ravensdale will be required to move regardless of which proposal is approved. Each proposal has children from that area who now attend Glacier Park moving to Rock Creek in the fall.

A woman in the audience said one of the reasons she chose to live in the Lake Retreat neighborhood was because her children would attend Glacier Park.

“We anticipated this and we struggled with this,” said committee member Rick Downer. “I sympathize with you.”

Zahradnik said that in the past parents have told district staff they know their children will get a quality education regardless of the school they attend.

Parents were also concerned they may experience boundary changes when their students reach middle school, but Zahradnik said it’s unlikely as it seems student populations tend to settle at that level.

Another parent asked what would happen if the school district put off the adjustment a year.

“If we didn’t make the change it would only get worse and not in three years,” Zahradnik said. “It’s pretty much capacity now (at Glacier Park).”

So why not add more portables, the audience asked.

There are six or eight portables at many of the schools in the district already and staff said there just isn’t space and it doesn’t really solve the problem, it only spreads it out more, not to mention the cost involved, the burden on existing structures as well the fact the Maple Valley fire marshal won’t allow it for safety reasons.

More information can be found online at the Tahoma School District Web site, including the presentation offered at the public information meeting. Go to www.tahoma.wednet.edu and click on the link “Boundary review committee hears from public.”